Soleidae

The true soles are a family, Soleidae, of flatfishes. It includes saltwater and brackish water species in the East Atlantic, Indian Ocean, West and Central Pacific Ocean, and the Mediterranean sea. Freshwater species are found in Africa, southern Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. Many soles are important food species: the common sole, Solea solea, is popular in northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Soleidae

Hans Hillewaert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PleuronectoideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 106 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 106 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 106 occurrencesEocene — about 24 of 106 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 106 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 52 of 106 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 106 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 106 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 6 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 10 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 6 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 10 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 31 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 17 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

106 occurrences of Soleidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

106 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

21 formations

Raz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WBarton Beds — 50.78°N, 1.73°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°EStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.51°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.21°WBecton — 50.74°N, 1.69°WEntre Rios — 33.72°S, 59.25°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WMokattam — 29.85°N, 31.35°EKishima — 33.38°N, 129.93°ESouthburn Sand — 44.37°S, 170.91°EMarna di Possagno — 46.16°N, 13.37°ESantiago — 33.12°N, 117.25°WChiting — 23.02°N, 120.28°ETapu — 24.96°N, 121.38°EPiney Point — 37.61°N, 76.76°WGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°E

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The named rock units Soleidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 64 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Soleidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Soleidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,998 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Soleidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

49 references

Each of the 106 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 37 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Soleidae

Credit
Hans Hillewaert
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Soleidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPleuronectoidei through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1833